Chronic pain not uncommon with car accidents

Written by Ankin Law Office

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A car accident in Chicago can leave lasting effects

When motorists are involved in an accident, they can sustain serious, life-altering injuries. Those who suffer a car accident in Chicago they are no exception. When bodies endure such severe injuries, they rarely heal enough to take them back to the same condition they were in prior to a crash. This can lead to many people suffering for years or decades with chronic pain related to their accident injuries.

According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine, chronic pain occurs when the pain signals coming from an individual’s nervous system fail to stop firing. This would be similar to having someone burn their finger and have the pain associated with the burn last for weeks, months or years at a time.

A study on the cause of chronic pain

Researchers have been delving into the causes of chronic pain with great results. U.S. News reports that a recent study found in the journal Arthritis Care & Research, performed by the University of Aberdeen School of Medicine and Dentistry in Scotland, found that car and motorcycle accidents were the most likely of any traumatic event to result in victims with chronic pain issues.

During the study, researchers examined 2,069 individuals and evaluated their pain and distress levels three times in four years. Patients were asked to disclose whether they had been involved in specific traumatic events at each session, including traffic accidents, surgery, workplace injury, hospitalization, childbirth and fracture.

Study results

Over 240 individuals reported a new onset of chronic pain during the study. Researchers also found that those who reported being in an auto accident were 84 percent more likely than other study participants to develop new onset chronic pain. However, they found no link between new onset of chronic pain and surgery, childbirth or hospitalization. Those who had endured fracture and workplace injury also had instances of new onset chronic pain, but they were not as pointed as that seen with traffic accident victims.

Statistics

The AAPM reports that as many as 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain in the U.S, affecting more individuals that diabetes, heart disease and cancer. A National Institutes of Health study found that auto accident-associated whiplash was one of the greatest contributors to chronic pain in the nation. The study reports that in 37 percent of cases, individuals’ chronic pain was associated with traffic accidents, while lifting, sports injuries and falls each accounted for less than 10 percent of instances of chronic pain.